Poker pro Valentin Vornicu is eying a record eleventh WSOP Circuit gold ring at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas. The casino hosts the latest stop on the schedule of the popular poker series and the $1,675 Main Event, part of the festival, is currently under way.

The second of two starting flights was completed on Saturday at the host venue. Vornicu bagged 300,000 chips Saturday night to lead a pack of 113 hopefuls who survived the event’s two starting fights to advance into Day 2.

Vornicu is tied with Maurice Hawkins with ten gold rings from the WSOP Circuit series, and the player positioned himself very well to win a record-breaking eleventh piece. The player is set to return to Planet Hollywood today at noon local time together with the other remaining hopefuls. Ten more 60-minute levels will be played so tha the field to be reduced further.

The Planet Hollywood Main Event drew 260 entries during Day 1A and 610 more during Day 1B. An overall field of 870 entries was thus generated across the two starting flights. The tournament entries created a prize pool of $915,000, which will be distributed to the top 63 finishers. This means that the money bubble is set to burst at some point today.

Notable Survivors

One-time WSOP gold bracelet winner and three-time WSOP Circuit gold ring winner Sean Yu bagged the third largest stack across the Main Event’s two starting flights. The player will enter Day 2 of the tournament with 259,000 in chips.

Barry Hutter, Jared Jaffee, Ankush Mandavia, and Mohsin Charania are few of the former WSOP gold bracelet winners who secured a spot among the Day 2 survivors. Former WSOP Main Event Champion Ryan Riess is too still in contention.

There are also some WSOP Circuit notables who survived that initial stage of the tournament, including Dyan Wilkerson, Brett Murray, and Wendy Freedman. They are all former WSOP Circuit gold ring winners.

Former WSOP Main Event Champion Kevin MacPhee was not lucky enough to survive into Day 2. The player was joined on the rail by David Baker, Larry Wright, and Scott Clements, among others.

As mentioned above, bursting the money bubble would be on the top of the remaining survivors’ agenda for Day 2 of the Main Event. Only the top 63 performers will leave with a share of the prize pool. Minimum cashes start from $2,992. The winner will receive the total amount of $192,152, a gold ring and a seat into the Global Casino Championship. The season-ending event is set to take place in August at Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina. Its participants will contend for the Global Casino Champion title as well as for a WSOP gold bracelet.

But as the WSOP Circuit has a few more steps to complete before wrapping its 2017/2018 season, sights are now and for now set on those.